Northrop Grumman to add 80 jobs

One of St. Johns County’s largest employers, Northrop Grumman Corp., announced late Monday that it plans to locate two of five new Centers of Excellence in Florida, one in St. Augustine and the other in Melbourne.

The center here will be located inside the existing Northrop Grumman compound on U.S. 1.

Company spokesman Randy Belote said, “We’ll be able to use this center to integrate state-of-the-art electronics into existing aircraft platforms.”

However, there’s no solid number indicating how many new jobs are coming.

Belote said Northrop Grumman isn’t sure how many new jobs will be added here.

St. Augustine Mayor Joe Boles said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s office told him 80 new positions would be added here.

But Gov. Rick Scott’s office issued a release saying that the two aircraft integration centers of Excellence in the state means “more than 1,000 new jobs for Florida.”

The five facilities include two aircraft integration centers — one here and another in Palmdale, Calif. — an unmanned systems center in San Diego, Calif., an electronic attack center in Bethpage, N.Y., and a manned aircraft center in Melbourne.

Gray Swoope, Florida’s secretary of commerce and president and CEO of Enterprise Florida, is quoted in Scott’s release as saying, “Northrop Grumman’s continued investment in the state is a testament to Florida’s competitiveness and supportive business climate.”

Belote said Northrop Grumman already had a footprint in St. Johns County.

“This will help us to evolve that,” he said. “When we cut costs, we’re in a better position to grow. This is a very fiscally challenged environment. We’ve been making these changes in response to (the sequester).”

The number of employees at the company is down 17 percent and facilities down 8 percent, he said.

Belote said the company is proud of its close relationship to the community.

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